The French Presidency of the Council of the EU (FPEU) submitted a third compromise on 21 April on the regulation against foreign subsidies that distort competition, a copy of which was made available to EUROPE. In the European Parliament, MEPs in the Committee on International Trade (INTA) adopted their position on 25 April (see EUROPE 12939/22).
In the first compromise it proposed in January on this text (see EUROPE 12878/5), France was broadly in line with the European Commission’s proposal (see EUROPE 12713/1). This revised text contains the same main elements, but changes some important details.
While the Parliament recommends including more companies in the scope of the regulation, the compromise proposed to the EU Council goes in the opposite direction.
In cases of mergers or acquisitions, the obligation to notify a foreign subsidy to the Commission should apply to European companies with a turnover of over €600 million and having received a financial contribution from a third country of more than €50 million in the last three years, according to the compromise. The turnover threshold for the company should be 400 million, according to the INTA committee.
For public procurement, companies must notify any financial support received in the last three years only when the value of the public procurement exceeds €300 million, according to the proposal made by the FPEU. MEPs want to lower the threshold to €200 million.
Several amendments made by MEPs are not included in the compromise. This is the case, for example, of the Commission’s obligation to take remedial action when a foreign subsidy is found to be market distorting.
It is also the case for the modification of the above-mentioned thresholds, which is to be done by delegated act, according to the compromise, and not by revision of the regulation.
On the other hand, the compromise suggests that the Commission may adopt delegated acts to reduce the time for preliminary analysis and investigation of a subsidy, if the need has been demonstrated.
See the compromise circulated by the FPEU: https://aeur.eu/f/1en (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)